A mother on Friday described to jurors being so scared of a “belligerent and unhinged” Jordan Neely that she barricaded her 5-year-old son behind his stroller.
Lori Sitro, a research director and mother of two, had been on the uptown F train taking her young son to a therapy appointment when she noticed a “commotion” from Neely, who had begun shouting.
“He was shouting in people’s faces,” Sitro recalled of Neely, who she said yelled, “‘I don’t have water, I don’t have food, I don’t have a home … I want to go to Rikers, I want to go to prison.’”
Neely started “lunging” in different people’s directions, Sitro said, later demonstrating the movement for jurors.
“He was very erratic and unpredictable,” she said.
“It felt very scary,” the mother recalled. “It was increasingly loud and it felt increasingly threatening. I would describe it as belligerent and unhinged. I actually took the stroller that I had and put it in front of my son to create a barrier of sorts.”
Sitro acknowledged that Neely didn’t lunge at her or threaten to kill her, as manslaughter suspect Daniel Penny’s lawyer claimed in opening statements.
Still, once Penny intervened to stop Neely, Sitro said, “I felt very relieved because I was scared for my son.”
Penny’s lawyers have said he shouldn’t be held criminally liable for Neely’s death since he was simply acting to protect other riders.
